Buffy Sainte-Marie And Tanya Tagaq Team Up For Polaris Collaboration Session

Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tanya Tagaq have teamed up for a Polaris Collaboration Session.

Past Polaris Music Prize winners Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tanya Tagaq have teamed up to create the new recording “You Got To Run (Spirit Of The Wind)” as part of the second-ever Polaris Collaboration Session.

Sainte-Marie and Tagaq, who won the Polaris in 2015 and 2014, respectively, collaborated on the Sainte-Marie-written song “You Got To Run (Spirit Of The Wind),” presented by Stingray Music and generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

The song can be heard right now on numerous Stingray Music channels, including Canadian Indie, Adult Alt, Canadian Voices, Canadian Adult Alternative, All Aboot Indie, Canadian Indie Chart and Stingray’s Hall of Fame Picks. A studio performance video of “You Got To Run (Spirit Of The Wind)” is also available via the Polaris Music Prize YouTube channel. Additionally, the latest episode of the Polaris Podcast features an interview with Sainte-Marie and Tagaq discussing the collaboration.

The song was recorded in fall 2016 at Orange Lounge in Toronto with producer Jon Levine (Nelly Furtado, K’naan, Drake). It was mixed by Howie Beck (Feist, Hannah Georgas, Jason Collett). It was inspired by champion dogsled racer George Attla, who competed in the first-ever Iditarod dog sled race in 1973 and was the subject of the 1979 film, Spirit Of The Wind.

Tagaq and Sainte-Marie hope the message of “You Got To Run (Spirit Of The Wind)” can affect listeners in a number of inspiring ways.

“It reminded me of growing up in Nunavut,” explains Tagaq. “Sometimes when things get difficult you have to pick yourself up, you can’t let things bring you down. You could take it to be an anti-suicide message. I really appreciate its powerful lyrics.”

Sainte-Marie wouldn’t be opposed to political candidates using it as a theme song.

“There are very important things going on in Indian country right now. This is a song I’d like to hand to any of our Aboriginal candidates who really are in a position, finally, to make a big difference,” said Sainte-Marie.

A free digital download and a separate vinyl release of “You Got To Run (Spirit Of The Wind)” will be coming at a later date.

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